NEWS

Exhibition Memoire celebrates the legacy of the British Council in Bangladesh

Exhibition Memoire was an interactive story-telling session and exhibition, organised on 25 July 2017 and in celebration of the British Council’s valuable presence in Bangladesh for nearly 70 years. The goal of the event was to visually display the impact created by the British Council through the library, examination services, opportunities of education, our work in arts and development projects.

A special delegation led by Sir Ciarán Devane, Chief Executive, along with Diana Good, Specialist Adviser to the UK’s House of Commons Select Committee on International Development, Dan Chugg, Head of Communications in the Foreign Office UK and Mark Stephens, Regional Director, South Asia attended the event and interacted with the guests whose stories were put on display.

A special delegation led by Sir Ciarán Devane, Chief Executive, along with Diana Good, Specialist Adviser to the UK’s House of Commons Select Committee on International Development, Dan Chugg, Head of Communications in the Foreign Office UK and Mark Stephens, Regional Director, South Asia attended the event and interacted with the guests whose stories were put on display.

The stories on display were collected through multiple channels of British Council’s engagement with the Bangladeshi people: personal blogs on the British Council monthly e-newsletter, success stories of our stakeholders , video testimonials uploaded on British Council Bangladesh’s YouTube channel, a collection of 5-star reviews from the British Council Bangladesh Facebook page and fond memories of writers of the Tell-Your-Tale national campaign. The Tell-Your-Tale campaign was an invitation to the people of Bangladesh to send in their personal stories and accounts of memories with the British Council over the last six decades. Among the participants of Tell-Your-Tale are those who now are in leading positions in the country’s areas of arts, culture, political, educational and development sectors.

Guests also enjoyed the opportunity to hear from invited speakers who shared their experiences with the British Council. One of the speakers was, Professor Ahmed Shamsul Islam, who is the first ever recipient of the British Council Scholarship in 1951, which was the year of British Council’s establishment in Dhaka. Dr Islam is now one of the most notable botanists of the country.

The exhibition highlighted the British Council's impact on the lives of Bangladeshi people from diverse backgrounds.